The Handlebar: Hands-on Learning Meets Bicycle Repair
Handlebar
Dickinson's on-campus bicycle repair shop keeps riders rolling
video by Joe O'Neill
The Handlebar is an on-campus bicycle repair shop/learning space where students, faculty and staff volunteer to teach members of the Dickinson community the skills of bicycle maintenance. With sustainability always top of mind, the program reclaims and reuses materials to provide a valuable environment-friendly benefit to the community while promoting the skills for an active lifestyle that go hand in hand with biking.
And riders roll away from a session at the Handlebar with more than just a road- or trail-ready bike.
“It’s not just about fixing bikes,” says Allison Miller ’20 (environmental studies). “It’s about teaching people to fix bikes.” Born via a joint effort between the Center for Sustainability Education and the Idea Fund, the Handlebar also represents a return to using using your hands instead of technology, something many will find a refreshing escape from the everyday.
“I just love that in the age of technology and everything being online there’s a space on campus where you just get to express your mechanical skills,” says Ariel Levin-Antila ’21 (psychology, environmental studies).
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Published August 5, 2019